My co-worker Wendy recently contacted me to ask if one of the ladies who had been on a tour of Catholic Charities St. Cloud Children’s Home could stop by to fix one of the banners in the chapel.
I knew exactly which one she was talking about – it has a Sheppard and sheep on it and it says “I will seek and save my flock.” I had no idea when it was created or the story behind it, but agreed it could use some updating.
Ruby stopped by a week later. Turns out that in the 80s, her grandson had been a resident at the Children’s home, and one of his favorite staff members passed away.Ruby had decided to create the banner in the man’s honor.
It wasn’t until her tour that she saw the banner again after all those years. Everyone who was on the tour with her stopped and looked at the back of the banner to see whose name was on it. Low and behold, Ruby’s name was there. She was so touched to see it hanging there after all this time and instantly wanted to make the banner look as it did back when she first made it.
I was glad to sit with her as she took the time to fix the hem, clean the banner by vacuuming it, and cleaning up the sheep by snipping off some of the darker pieces of “wool.” It’s now back in it’s place in the chapel, looking as good as the first day we hung it.
